Humanitarian Aid
Venezuela’s current economic and political situation is the largest humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere with almost 5 million people displaced.
While the challenges are immense, The Wayuu Taya Foundation strives to make life better by bringing food, access to health, access to education to the most vulnerable, in localities along the border between Venezuela and Colombia. The indigenous population have the least access to infrastructure and are the most vulnerable in the country. In many areas there is no access to water, no electrical, gas, or sewage systems, which has resulted in a proliferation of disease, malnutrition, and viruses. Yet the population remains incredibly resilient. The Foundation continues its activities despite the difficult political economic climate.
During 2019 in collaboration with Frank Giustra, Acceso, Giustra Foundation, Chef José Andrés, World Central Kitchen Foundation, Aid Live Foundation and The Clinton Foundation, Wayúu Taya started the implementation of a weekly food program aimed at Wayuu community. A total of 47 communities, 10 institutions and 8 nonprofit organizations from the region are served, reaching over 4,700 people per week. To date, our food program has helped feed over 46,000 people and served more than 1,500,000 meals.
Thanks to the Foundation’s friends and Partners, thousands of medicines and supplies have been distributed on the border between Venezuela and Colombia for 16 Communities, 16 Health Institutions and 28 Nonprofit Organizations, reaching to date over 40,000 people .
These actions have had very concrete benefits for the communities:
1. Reduction of cases of malnutrition in schools and communities benefiting from Humanitarian Aid.
2. Slower diaspora of Wayuu families to Colombia, since the main factor causing displacement to another country is the lack of food and medicine.
3. More than 1.500.000 million meals have been prepared during these months.
4. Permanent nutrition assessment sessions have been carried out where numerous cases of extreme malnutrition were detected in children.
5. More than 120.000 bars of soaps have been distributed in the area thanks to our partnership with Clean The World Foundation.
6. Provided potable water, nutritional drinks, PPE for medical personal and 5000 masks for the children.
7. Through our community meal model, we gave children the opportunity to have one daily serving of nutrient rich food to maintain overall health and development. It has been a successful and immensely needed program helping to reduce cases of malnutrition exponentially. We delivered nutritional drinks for over 2,150 children in 20 communities.
